Drabbles Collection
by elbeeinthewild
Summary: Unrelated drabble-y things inspired by one-word prompts. I'll probably add more of these from time to time, so it's sort of an open-ended work.
1. Surfacing

Author's Note: So the muse doesn't want to talk to me about my two WIPs right now. She wanted to do this little drabble-ish thing instead.

Reference to 'Requiem' if you squint.

* * *

He peered into the cold, black depths and waited. Two men appeared out of the gloom then surfaced; one gasping air, the other still and white. Was it like this before? No…helping hands were waiting this time. That was different.

He watched them start CPR, wanting to help but intuitively knowing he couldn't. He rubbed his sternum in sympathy as a still chest was pumped relentlessly. His head spun as alternately demanding and pleading words were spoken over the unmoving form; _breathe, dammit…stay with me_. Perspective shifted; vision blackened and hearing faded as the form suddenly arced and coughed.

Awareness flooded back, bringing pain and cold. The voice now came from above his prone body. Once demanding and pleading, now warm with relief and affection. "Welcome back, Tony."


	2. Blue

AN: Teensy missing scene for SWAK.

* * *

He didn't used to mind blue. Shannon had loved him in it; said it brought out the color of his eyes. This blue was altogether different. It didn't evoke memories of warm days, clear skies, and happier times. It certainly wasn't the piercing shade that gazed back at him from mirrors.

Blue was tainted now. The blue of the lights signified someone he cared about balanced on a knife's edge between recovery or slipping away, and leaning the wrong direction. Now blue was ominous and cold; a harbinger of death. He _hated_ it. Gibbs leaned down, desperate to tilt the balance back the other way.

He despaired for a moment when his first attempt to push back against the blue was ignored. He delivered a light smack to the top of Tony's head. When green eyes snapped open he leaned closer and spoke again. The soft, intense voice radiated confidence. "I said... _you will not die_."


	3. Implacable

Tony decided he'd had enough. Enough of being inexplicably benched and being demeaned. Gibbs was cold, distant, and perpetually angry but only with _him_ ; no one else. It had gone like this for months. Gibbs refused to explain, to allow him to understand what he'd done. And he'd tried to _so_ many times.

He stopped denying the distance that had grown between them was now a chasm that couldn't be bridged. He was tired…so tired of trying. Gibbs was…implacable. He didn't understand it, couldn't change it, and it wasn't in him to keep pretending all of it didn't cut deeply.

The only choice left to him now was leaving, and he resolved to do exactly that. Until he'd decided where to go next, when it came to Gibbs he'd be implacable too.


	4. Anything

Spoilers - a glimpse inside a scene from "Bury Your Dead".

* * *

Gibbs' stomach turns as Abby unpacks evidence from the scene. She's rambling and he can barely stand it. He'd do anything for her so he listens, though it's like a knife twisting in his belly. The litany tells him she's holding onto hope where there is none.

Her words ring with denial but Abby's manic movements betray her devastation. He'd give anything if she weren't the one examining these charred pieces of evidence.

She freezes, looking down as the reality of the evidence in front of her outweighs hope.

"Tell me it's not him, Gibbs."

Abby whirls to face him, her eyes shining with tears she refuses to let fall. She launches herself into his arms pleading again, " _Tell me it's not him._ "

He'd give anything to tell her that, but it's a lie. Tony is dead.

He chokes down his despair and manages a hoarse whisper.

"I wish I could, Abby."


	5. Certainty

AN: Spoilers for 'Chained'. Tiny extended scene.

* * *

Some things he knew with certainty. Gibbs knew he was worried about Tony and too much of a bastard to admit it to Kate. He knew it was Tony who'd been calling then hanging up, and he'd been too damn slow to catch on.

He knew as soon as he saw the blood-streaked car windows, they were too late to alter the outcome. He looked through the gory back window, and knew Jeffrey White was dead.

Turning to the slumped, still figure in the front seat, Gibbs realized Tony might be dead too. He didn't _want_ that certainty; one that would be undeniable once he opened the door, but he _needed_ it one way or the other.

Gibbs' chest tightened painfully when Tony didn't react to the door opening. Then…relief as Tony's head turned slowly and he gazed up at him from dark, haunted eyes.

"I really liked him."

Gibbs knew with certainty his agent would carry scars from this case; the kind that no one would ever see.

~.~.~.~.~.~


	6. Unexpected

Two years after leaving NCIS, Tony receives an unexpected letter.

* * *

Tony sorted his mail, freezing as he recognized the handwriting on the last envelope in the stack. It hadn't been easy, but he'd made a life beyond NCIS _and_ the letter-writer.

After their angry and contentious parting of ways, a letter two years later wasn't going to cut it. He also wasn't willing to let this first, unexpected effort at contact give him a false sense of hope that the sender wanted to make amends.

Besides, anything important enough to be said to him _now_ could damn well be said in person. In spite of his resolve, regret washed over him as he picked up the letter.

Tony pulled a pen from the desk drawer, tapping it against his lips in a moment of contemplation. Knowing his own handwriting would be equally recognizable as would his message, he wrote "Return to Sender" next to Gibbs' neat, precise print and tossed the letter in with the outgoing mail.


End file.
